What Does a First Appointment With a Dietitian Look Like?
Whether you’re interested in sports nutrition, general healthy eating, weight loss, suffer from food allergies or intolerances, or medical conditions such as diabetes, POGO Physio offer one-on-one dietitian consultations where you will be provided with tailored, evidence-based nutrition advice to suit your individual needs.
The first step is to complete a short questionnaire, which will be emailed to you by POGO Physio prior to your initial appointment. This form will include a 3-7 day diet history to be completed and returned prior to your appointment, if time permits. It is also asked that you bring a copy of your most recent blood test results with you to your first appointment. At your initial consultation, you will be asked to fill out a registration form, so please allow 5-minutes for completion prior to your appointment time.
This initial consultation is 1-hour in duration, which will ensure adequate time to conduct a thorough nutrition assessment, so that all information and plans are tailored to your individual needs. You can expect a full health assessment, which includes a review of your medical history, biochemistry, medications and supplements, relevant baseline anthropometric measures, symptoms, and more. A diet and lifestyle assessment will also be undertaken, where we will look at your eating and lifestyle habits, sleep and exercise regimes, food preferences and intolerances.
It is important that you understand what is going on with your body in order to overcome any health and nutrition struggles. My role is to provide you with a tailored, evidence-based dietary education and advice in accordance with your goals, to help you understand the link between your nutrition and health, and leave you feeling confident walking out of the consult room. We will also work together to set out realistic, achievable short and long term goals, and map out an action plan to help you reach your goals.
Based on our initial assessment, you will receive your first personalised meal plan which is tailored to your individual needs and goals, at your follow-up consultation. It will be designed to achieve healthier and sustainable dietary changes, and altered according to your needs and preferences at subsequent appointments.
Improving your health and wellbeing through nutrition is not a quick fix, which is why follow-up consultations are highly valuable. It can also be overwhelming when making changes to your nutrition and eating habits. Research shows that regular sessions with a qualified dietitian produce far greater results, compared with trying to do it alone.
Follow-up appointments are 45-minutes in duration, and are scheduled to provide you with ongoing support, accountability and ensure you are tracking in the right direction. In order to continue moving forward to reach your goals, it is recommended we meet once a fortnight for follow-up consultations. We will monitor your progress through various measures, and address any questions, results or issues that have surfaced since your previous appointment. We will discuss your current plan, any challenges or barriers, create solutions, and make modifications to your next plan. Review consults will also include structured education tailored to your needs, so that you can be and expert in your own health.
Danielle De Francesco
POGO Dietitian
Book an Appointment with Danielle here.
Featured in the Top 50 Physical Therapy Blog
